Surround speakers

[Dr C]

Hi guys - got a coupla questions for ya :

1. For your surround speakers, do you favour dipole or bipole speakers ?

2. I'm under the impression that dipoles are good provided you have the walls that the sound can bounce off or else it's no use.

3. As for bipoles, the ideal placement should be the back wall.

4. All this works fine for 5.1 but what aboit 6.1/7.1 ? Should it be dipoles only on the sides and the rear center(s) at the back ? Can we still use bipoles.

5. What about you folks having DVD-A/SACD where full range direct radiating speakers are specified ? Do you have different speakers for HT and 5.1 audio ?

6. How critical is the rear center(s) ? Can they be dipole/bipole or must they be direct ?

7. Anyone have any feedback on wireless rear speakers ? Not possible for me to have a rear center at ear height cos I ran out of cables. I did provide for 7.1 cabling where the cables are located in the ceiling but i understand that the rear centers have to be at ear height due to localisation problems.

8. Anyine have any expereince in wireless transmission of line outputs. another possibility I'm considering is to transmit my rear line signals wirelessly, run them thru the amp where I'm sitting and connect speakers to the amp. the rear speaker will be on a stand so they can be moved out of the way when i'm not using the system. (My rear wall is actually 1 whole glass sliding door !

Any recommendations on speakers ?

Phew - think that's enough for now. This has been a pent up series of questions over the last few weeks.

Thks - Dr C

[Azeke]

Although I can't address all of your questions, I am currently running a 7.1 system, so I can address some of your questions. Many of your questions are a matter of personal taste and you should probably test drive, but here are my experiences

1) My rears: Definitive Technology BPV speakers (Bipolar), I love these babies. There are located 2-3 ft above my head and slightly behind the listening position.

2) My CB's: JBL Pro Cinema III,s, (direct firing) I had these laying around so I utilized them as my center backs. Many authorites suggest that your CBs should be direct firing. I have not tried any other speaker for CB rears. You should ensure you have the room dimensions for 7.1 speaker placement, if you don't perhaps 6.1 would be optimal (since there are no DVD's that utilize the 7.1 format anyway, mono only across the CB rears).

3) I actually comtemplated utilizing wireless speakers as rears, however I had two concerns. The first being wireless interference with the equipment and the second being the overall quality of the speakers, usuallly not the best. This would be something you would have to test in your environment. I would try to utilize the pre-wired and pivot the CB speakers downward towards the primary listening position.

Conclusion: These configurations would have to be tested and you have to judge using your own ears. **One of the most important factors for testing is to ensure that you calibrate each configuration using HT calibration disk and an SPL meter before evaluating each testing configuration.

Hope this helps & good luck,

Azeke

[Andrew Pratt]

In my 6.1 system I use a hybrid bipole/dipole speaker for the sides and a single direct radiating speaker for the rear centre (its identical to my front centre)

Using bipole or dipole speakers for the sides works best for me since I have two rows of seating and I prefer them for HT use but for SACD or DVD-A direct radiating is likely prefered so it would come down to which is more important to you I guess.